Candle of mercy

On Nov. 29, 2006, the first and only hostel in Ukraine for intellectually challenged people aged 16 and over presented the results of its first year of operations. This unique hostel, founded by the Dzherela Charity, is aimed at the social adaptation of the disabled through monitoring, care, and daily activities. Marking the first anniversary of the Kyiv City Council’s decision, the directors of Dzherela’s summarized this year’s achievements, thanked their sponsors, and showed the guests what the hostel’s special residents do, and how.

One year ago the charity rented a house with a courtyard, which had to be adapted to the needs of disabled adults. A little over one million hryvnias was allocated for this purpose. A year ago there was nothing, but today visitors can see a playground, neat fall flowerbeds, and a two-storey freshly renovated building. Today the facility is hooked up to every type of communication system, furniture has been purchased, and its rooms are ready to provide accommodation and work stations for the intellectually challenged.

There are only a few residents: eight people live in the hostel, and seven others come for the day. Each of them has a cozy room with a desk, a bed, and a wardrobe. They spend most of the day either in the workshop or outdoors making postcards, toys, and candles, or tidying up the grounds.

Raisa Kravchenko, Dzherela’s director, assured the visitors that everything is fine with the residents of the hostel. This experimental establishment is proud to be one of the best at taking care of its residents. It is much more difficult to work with potential product suppliers, sometimes with the relatives of the disabled, and with members of the local community, whose attitude to the residents is ambivalent, but mostly negative.

However, after one year of work people’s attitudes have changed somewhat. While in other cities the creation and operations of similar establishments are hampered by protests and petitions to the local authorities, here the locals have become friendly with the hostel’s residents. Students from a local school even volunteer to help the intellectually disabled. One day before the open house a group of ninth graders from School No. 42 planted several trees in the courtyard of the hostel. Although it was the schoolgirls’ first visit to the hostel, they assured the visitors that helping the mentally disabled is not an inconvenience for them, and that helping those who need assistance is a sacred duty for young people.

Toward the end of the visit the guests were invited to the workshop. Finished products were displayed in two bright rooms. There were all sorts of candles — square, round, flower-shaped, and beehive-style, painted with wax. The desks are piled with the necessary materials — lumps of multi-colored paraffin and glass flasks, which serve as moulds. With practiced ease the hostel residents put wicks into moulds, grind the paraffin, fill the flasks, pour in the wax, and presto — a brightly colored candle is ready for sale or display.

What sort of life do they have here? Do they like the job? Are they mistreated? “It’s good here,” replies Olena (not her real name). “We are appreciated. We also make postcards, like those ones, the beautiful ones. But it’s better at home. At home I have a sister and a cat.”